Machine foe



A. SOHN. MAGHINE FOR FILLING MATCH FRAMES.

N0. 10,809. Patented Apr. 18, 1854.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ANTHONY ,SOHN, or MONROEVILLE, OHIO.

MACHINE FOR FILLING MATCH-FRAMES.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 10,809, dated April 18, 1854;.

To all whom it may concern: Be it known that I, ANTHONY Sol-IN, of

Monroeville, in the county of Huron and State of Ohio, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Machinery for FillingMatch'Frames Preparatory to the Dipping Operation; and I do hereby declare that thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description of thesame, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, making a part ofthis. specification, in which- Figure 1, is a plan of a machine,constructed according to my improvements. Fig. 2, is a longitudinalvertioalsect-ion of the same. Fig. 3, is a front elevation of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts, in each ofthe several figures.

In the manufacture of friction matches, the dipping of a large number isalways effected at the same time, by securing them in a frame in such amanner that their ends are alleven. They require to be held in theframe, each match byitself, to prevent their being made to adhere by thesulfur or the igniting compound; and the process ;of placing them in theframe has always been an object of difficulty, and has been almostentirely performed by hand.

The machine which forms the subject of this inventionisintendedtoperform. and repeat the operation of taking a suitable numberfor one rowfrom a box or hopper,

and depositing them separately in the.

frame, so, that all the manual labor necessary is to place a piece ofpasteboard or thin slab of any material between the successive rows.

To enable those skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I willnow proceed to describe the construction and operation of the same.

The working parts of the machine are all supported by a framing, A, nearthe front of whose upper part is a horizontal bed, B, of wood or metal,with a number of straightparallel grooves, a, a, extending from back tofront, the said grooves being of a suitable width and depth to eachreceive a match, and having small spaces between them. On the bed, B, isplaced a box, O, which serves as a hopper; it is without a bottom orfront and is of the proper width from back to front edges of the sidesto I such a manner that it can only move transi versely on the bed, B;in that direction, 1t

is capable of being moved freely, and reiceives a reciprocating motion,and then ;comes to a state of rest, at regular intervals; the saidmotion being transmitted by a; bent-lever, b, and rods, 0, 0, from acrank,

, (Z, on a shaft, E, which is furnished with a pinion, F, receiving anintermittent motion from a wheel, G, which is toothed only about ,onehalf round. The wheel, G, is

, fast upon the same shaft, L, with a Wheel, iI-I, which. derives aconstant rotary motion from a pinion, I, on the driving shaft,

J of the machine. At the back of the bed, B, there is a sliding frame,K, which receives a reciprocating motion horizontally back and forth onslides, e, 6, through a pitman, f,.from a crank, g, on the shaft, L.

. In front of this frame are secured a num- I ber of wires or rods, 0,0, which, by the mo- F tion of the frame, are driven back and forththrough the grooves, a, a.

The motion is j of such length as to bring the points of the wires asfar forward as the edge of the bed,

; B, and to carry them so far back as to withdraw them from under thebox, C.

In front of the framing, there are firmly secured two uprights, M, M, inwhich are grooves, to guide a movable crosspiece, N, which .18 attachedto two endless cords or ichains, .h, h, passing over pulleys, v1, 2', in;the upper part of the uprights, and supjporting a weight, 0, which isfurnished with pulleys, n, n, where it is suspended on the cords. Theweight serves to balance, the crosspiece and the weight of a sufficientquantity of matches and separating slabs to fill a frame. Thematch-frame, P, is of the ordinary construction; having a movable toppiece, j, and also having grooves in its sides, to receive tongues onthe slats, 7c, 7a, which serve to keep the several rows of matches inplace, and which are represented in red color in Figs. 2, and 3; 'butthese slats, instead of being. notched as 1s commonly the case, are madeof flat piecesof material.

The match-frame is supported between the uprights, M, M, upon a fixedcrosspiece,

pasteboard, wood, or other Q, and is held in place against the front ofthe framing of the machine, by buttons, Z, Z, in'the uprights, M, M, andby the movable crosspiece, N, which works close in front of it. At theback of the matchframe and secured to the main framing, there are anumber of fixed vertical slats, m, m, which extend from the bottom ofthe match-frame up to a little higher than the top of the bed, B, closeto the front edge of which, they fit. The spaces between the slats, m,9%, correspond with the notches in the bed, 13; and the slats serve tokeep the matches apart, after they are deposited in the frame, untilthey are secured. The sliding crosspiece, N, is furnished with a lightiron step-frame, R, whose sides are parallel, and fitted to slidehorizontally through holes in the crosspiece, between the sides of thematch-frame, and whose front stands parallel with the front edges of theslats, m, m, and of the bed, B; the said step-frame being provided witha handle in frontof the crosspiece.

The frame is filled in the following manner:The box, C, is supplied withmatches, which are laid with their ends toward the back and front; andthe cover, D, is then put on, to hold them down. The frame to be filledis placed, without its movable toppiece, in its proper position, asshown in several figures of the drawing. The stepframe, R, is pushedforward against. the slats, m, m; and the sliding crosspiece, iselevated to such a position that the step frame is a very little belowthe level of the top of the bed, B. A slat is placed upon thestep-frame; and the machinery may now be supposed to commence itsmotion. The only attendant needed is a child, who stands in front of themachine, with a number of the slats, 7s, is, always at hand. The rapidreciprocating movement of the box, C, moves the matches across thegrooves, a, a, and rubs a match into each groove. The forward motion ofthe frame, K, passes the wires, 0, 0, through the grooves, and pushesthose matches which are contained in the said grooves, over the edge ofthe bed, B,

and deposits them upon the slat, is. The attendant then places anotherslat, k, in the I frame, P, on the top of the first row of putting in aslat, every time a row of matches is deposited on the last row put in,and depressing the sliding crosspiece, N, until the step, R, reaches thebottom of the frame, P, at which time the latter is full. The step isthen withdrawn, and the top piece, j, of the frame, is put in andsecured; thereby securing the whole of the matches in place. It shouldbe understood that the rubbing mot-ion of the box, C, should only takeplace when the wires, 0, 0, are drawn back from the box; and this is whythe motion of the box is intermittent. The ends of the matches in theframe are all even, in' consequence of the points of the wires comingall evenly to the edge of the bed, B, and just pushing them over. Whenone frame is filled, the machine is stopped; and the full frame is takenout. A new empty frame is then put in; and the sliding crosspiece, N, isthen raised, the step, R, is pushed forward, and a slat is placed uponit. The machine is then again started; and the operation proceeds asbefore.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is,-

1. The combination of the bottomless, shaking, or reciprocating box orhopper, C, and the fixed bed, B, which is grooved transversely to themotion of the box, but longitudinally to the direction of the matches,substantially as described, for the purpose of separating a number ofmatches, and laying them parallel in a row, at a required distanceapart.

2. The reciprocating series of rods, 0, 0,

in combination as described with the grooved bed, B, for the purpose ofpushing the matches longitudinally from the grooves into the frame, P.

3. Placing the match frame, P, for the purpose of being filled, in anupright fixed frame, M, M, Q, which is furnished with a sliding balancedcrosspiece, containing a movable step, R, which is capable of beingprotruded through the said crosspiece, between the sides of the matchframes, and withdrawn therefrom, for the purpose of receiving the slats,7s, 74, and matches, nearly on a level with the grooved bed, andlowering them into the match frames until the latter are full, and thenbeing withdrawn therefrom, to leave the matches in the frames, and leavethe frames free to be taken from the machine, substantially as hereindescribed.

ANTHONY SOHN.

Witnesses:

O. D. MUNN, L. F. COHEN.

